A blog launched on the 41st anniversary of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), the first pro-life organisation in the world, established on 11 January 1967. SPUC has been a leader in the educational and political battle against abortion, human embryo experimentation and euthanasia since then. I write this blog in my role as SPUC's chief executive, commenting on pro-life news, reflecting on pro-life issues and promoting SPUC's work.

Wednesday, 30 April 2014

Undercover video exposes cruelty to elderly in care home
Undercover filming by BBC's Panorama has revealed shocking cruelty against elderly residents of a care home in Essex, England. Residents at the Old Deaney, Braintree, were slapped, handled roughly, taunted, mocked, ignored and neglected. One member of staff has been sacked, while seven more have been suspended pending an investigation. [BBC, 30 April] Anthony Ozimic of SPUC commented: "This scandal is only one of many cases in which elderly and ill people in England have suffered appalling institutional abuse. Laws and policies which permit euthanasia will only add to the prejudice that many in society have against the elderly and the disabled.

Saturday, 26 April 2014

I had the pleasure of being interviewed recently by Michael Voris, the great American Catholic apologist, on his Mic'd Up! programme on ChurchMilitant.TV. You can watch the interview below or on YouTube. I spoke about:

the fine work of my colleagues at SPUC

the successes and expertise of the pro-life movement

the importance of Catholic Church leadership to winning the pro-life fight

the geo-political significance of pro-life battle in English-speaking world

the effect of international anti-life agencies on developing world

the scandal of Holy Communion for pro-abortion politicians

the importance of marriage and families for protecting unborn children

the need for Catholic Church leaders to speak out against contraception and abortifacient birth control

Friday, 25 April 2014

Mary Glindon, Member of Parliament for North Tyneside, has given her support to a national parents' rights campaign which opposes making sex education a compulsory classroom subject.

Mrs Glindon attended a packed public meeting at Tyneside Irish Centre on Tuesday evening, addressed by Antonia Tully of SPUC's Safe at School campaign. Safe at School upholds the rights of parents to protect their children against unacceptable sex education.

Mary Glindon MP

Antonia told a shocked audience about the graphic nature of sex education which exposes children to damaging images and messages. She also told the meeting that claims by Ofsted that a lack of sex education makes children vulnerable to abuse are unfounded.

RCOG faculty bars pro-life medics
A faculty of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecology (RCOG) has barred pro-life medics. New guidelines by the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health (FSRH) bar doctors and nurses who have a conscientious objection to abortifacient birth control. Such medics will not be allowed to become faculty-members nor receive qualifications or training from the faculty. [Peter Saunders, 23 April]

Tuesday, 22 April 2014

Doctors who signed blank abortion forms are let off
Over 60 doctors who pre-signed blank abortion authorisation forms will not be disciplined, according to The Mail. The newspaper obtained the information through a Freedom of Information request. The General Medical Council (GMC) has taken the decision not to discipline the doctors, despite an investigation by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) which confirmed the unlawful practice. [Mail, 22 April]

Anthony Ozimic, SPUC's communications manager, is in superb debating form in "The Big Debate" on same-sex marriage at the University of Westminster:

Visitors to my blog may recall Anthony's tour-de force back in January 2013 on ITV's This Morning programme on the subject of same-sex marriage and schools. Not only did Anthony hold his own against what was a three-against-one cross-examination, but the gap in the viewing public's opinions narrowed during the debate from 80%-20% to 60%-40%.

On this occasion, Anthony is debating against David Allison, a spokesperson for Outrage, a militant homosexual campaigning group.

I recommend everyone to watch how Anthony deals concisely, reasonably and convincingly with:

the history of marriage

the best interests of children

the structure of marriage, and

why same-sex marriage is a disordered lifestyle choice.

It's clearly essential that all those who seeking to uphold marriage as the permanent, exclusive union of one man and one woman, and as the fundamental goup unit of society, does so in a calm and measured way - as Anthony succeeds in doing in the brief debate recorded above.

Friday, 18 April 2014

New Premier of New South Wales supports pro-life, pro-family values
Mike Baird, the new Premier of New South Wales, Australia's largest state, supports pro-life and pro-family values. The Guardian reports that Mr Baird voted for a bill which could give personhood rights to some unborn children. He also voted against embryonic stem cell research and same-sex marriage. [Guardian, 17 April]

Brian Harradine

Brian Harradine, pro-life Australian politician, dies age 79
Brian Harradine, the pro-life Australian former politician, has died aged 79. [SBS, 14 April] John Smeaton, SPUC's chief executive, said: "Senator Brian Harradine was an inspirational figure for me, who almost single-handedly
stopped the Australian government from funding the anti-life population
control lobby. I fondly remember his visit to SPUC’s offices in Westminster in the late 1970s. When he walked into our office, shortly after we had moved in, he said 'Gee, this is a mess! The Holy Spirit must be here'. Certainly he demonstrated in his political life the power of the Holy Spirit in confounding our enemies. May he rest in peace."

Thursday, 17 April 2014

Ruth Hunt, the acting head of Stonewall, the UK's main homosexual lobby, wrote an article recently for "Pink News" entitled: "We must celebrate equal marriage whilst looking ahead to what is still to be done".

As I say in my forthcoming column in SPUC's Pro-Life Times: "This aggressive homosexual rights group wants to probe right into family homes – yours and mine – to dictate what parents should teach to their children. And they’ll be looking for legislation to enforce this".

Anthony Ozimic, SPUC's communications manager who has studied the homosexual lobby in Britain carefully, has written the following helpful reflections on Hunt's article:

After reflecting on the legal recognition of same-sex pseudo-marriage, she writes: "This is an important milestone. But we’re not done yet. We must use our skills and energy to make sure homophobia, biphobia and transphobia are eradicated from our schools, our streets, ours sports fields, our workplaces, our churches and our homes. And we must support our friends abroad."

Hunt deploys the term "homophobia" but, in her article, does not define it. Both the word and the concept of "homophobia" were invented by an American psychologist at the height of the 1960s' sexual revolution. Some soi-disant pro-family commentators have accepted this ideological neologism and use it imprudently to try to position themselves as more reasonable than their sounder colleagues. They accept the gay rights lobby's narrative that irrational negativity towards individuals homosexuals exists to a significant extent in society. The dangerous folly of this acceptance can be clearly seen when we consider what the narrative about "homophobia" will mean in reality.

Stonewall's official definition of homophobia is "the irrational hatred, intolerance, and fear of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people." This official definition, however, masks the reality of how "homophobia" is being deployed. Dr Evan Harris, the former Liberal Democrat MP and a vice-president of the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association, who has called for the Church of England to be disestablished because it is "homophobic" , claimed that "lots of religious texts are homophobic" and argued that "discrimination against having gay sex equals discrimination against gay people" Dr Harris has also called for faith schools to be stopped from sacking or rejecting a teacher based on their marital status, and for religious organisations not to withhold public services from users on "sexual grounds".

If we move away from the high ground of politico-moral discourse and descend the low ground of trash television, we see exactly the same dynamic at work. In January this year, Evander Holyfield, the retired boxer, appeared on Channel Four's "Celebrity Big Brother". In the course of a casual conversation, one of the other celebrities raised the subject of homosexuals in sport, to which Holyfield replied with brief remarks that homosexuality was unnatural, contrary to Biblical morality and a curable condition. The programme's production team disciplined Holyfield and warned him that "expressing these views will be extremely offensive to many people...Big Brother does not tolerate the use of offensive language..." Boy George, the homosexual pop singer, reacted to Holyfield's comments by tweeting: "At customs there should be a huge sign! Welcome to Britain, racism, sexism, homophobia and bad hair are not tolerated!"

The result of this dynamic is that "homophobia" can be deployed to devastating effect to relegate anyone who objects to any aspect of homosexuality to "an irrational hatred, intolerance, and fear of" homosexuals, akin to racism. So when Ruth Hunt calls for action "to make sure homophobia, biphobia and transphobia are eradicated from our schools, our streets, ours sports fields, our workplaces, our churches and our homes", this will mean the eradication of the freedom to uphold normative sexual morality. To achieve this, new laws would need to be passed, especially laws to disempower parents and to make pro-homosexuality sex education compulsory in schools. A very disturbing development in this area is the proposal by the Scottish Government to assign every child with a state guardian. This proposal is reminiscent of the surveillance of citizens by Communist regimes and of the control exercised by sects over their victims. Such power to interfere in family life will almost certainly be used to clamp down on any parents who dare to preserve their children from the influence of the sexual rights agenda - abortion, contraception, homosexuality. The sexual rights lobby have always known that the complete success of their agenda depends upon suppressing the right of parents to be primary educators of their children in moral matters.

All this is why SPUC has a Safe at School campaign - to help parents protect their children. Find our more today about SPUC's Safe at School campaign.

Friday, 11 April 2014

Tomorrow Juan Rios Perez flys out from London to Spain, where he will start a 60km sponsored walk for SPUC across the island of Mallorca, carrying a cross almost eight foot in height (exact size 240cm x 132cm).

Juan's walk will start at Lloseta and finish at the Oratory of San Salvador, Felanitx. He writes:

"I was born in the south of Spain (Malaga) to a family of traditional Spanish Catholic farmers. In 1980, I met my wife (Deborah) from London, on the island of Mallorca. Two years later we wed in 1982.

My daughter Sophia was born 3 years later in 1985. By that time I had a business with my wife which stagnated during the late 1980s recession. By the end of 1988 we decided to sell our business as it had become difficult to keep running. We made the decision to move to London, my wife's home-city for good.

My son Jonathan was born upon my first year in the UK. At that time I was working as a professional photographer. I later changed my career, as I had very little quality-time to spend with my wife and children due to the work commitments of a professional photographer. In February 1991, I took a two-year catering course at Westminster College and qualified as a chef in July 1993.

Unfortunately, in June 2000, my wife was diagnosed with cancer. She was given all the treatment possible but passed away in August 2001. Her death changed my life, and since then I have dedicated myself to Jesus, to preaching His word and reading Sacred Scripture.

Today, I am an active member of the pro-life movement. It is my voluntary sacrifice to raise money for the protection of unborn children. As a devout Catholic, my priority is always to serve God and my family all the days of my life."

Thursday, 10 April 2014

This week I have been attending the 47th session of the Commission on Population and Development at the United Nations in New York. I have been working with SPUC's veteran lobbyists, Pat Buckley (pictured standing in the photo) and Peter Smith (sitting). We have been joined this week by the redoubtable Obianuju Ekeocha, pictured with us, representing Culture of Life Africa.

The ugly, anti-life agenda has been all too evident this week here at the United Nations. The gloves are off and war is being waged against the unborn, marriage, children and the family. The pro-abortion lobby - which is out here in force - is being led by the likes of Lynne Featherstone on behalf of the British government - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for International Development. I will say more about that another day.

"This meeting has to be viewed through the lens the original Cairo Conference on Population and development (in 1994) during which an uneasy balance was reached between the radical western sexual rights agenda and the more generally accepted societal norms for life and family issues.

"Tragically, the Cairo agreement, twenty years ago, has never stopped the anti life lobby from endeavouring to implement their complete agenda of sexual and reproductive rights, which includes, amongst other things, abortion on demand, comprehensive sexuality education for children and adolescents and acceptance of every form of same sexual practice plus same sex marriage.

"It has become clear during the conference that the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) has been targeting some of the small Caribbean and Pacific Island States in order to promote their radical sexual agenda. Many of these small Island nations from Kiribati, to Fiji, the Cook Islands, Tuvalu, and Papua New Guinea, suddenly began speaking up for the first time and became abortion and sexual rights activist countries overnight."

Pat tells me: "The population and 'sexual rights' lobby don’t care about the real needs of small Island Nations and developing countries. All they seem to care about is advancing their sexual rights agenda".

10 April 2014Support Development OfficerSPUC wishes to recruit a full-time Support Development Officer (37½ hours per week), whose role will be to inspire support for the pro-life cause through the organising and promotion of:

youth activities

clergy and religious group projects

SPUC branch and volunteer activities.

He or she will:

have an absolute commitment to the pro-life cause

be educated to university degree level or be able to demonstrate success at project management, as well as an ability to write and carry out basic research

enjoy working with people and possess good inter-personal skills

be willing to travel, and to work some weekends.

The position will be based in SPUC’s Kennington HQ and salary will be according to age and experience.

Friday, 4 April 2014

LifeSite News has published an important story on Cardinal Nichols's current position on compulsory sex education.

At the heart of the story is a statement made last January by Lord Knight (pictured right) during a debate in the House of Lords in which he referred to his past "very good conversations with Cardinal Nichols" on the subject of compulsory sex education. Lord Knight was a minister in the (former) Department for Children, Schools and Families.

In 2010 I wrote on this blog about how Archbishop Nichols painted the then (Labour) Government's intentions in an entirely positive light - at a time when the government was making it absolutely clear that their intention was to promote abortion, contraception, and homosexuality in all state schools, including in Catholic schools.

Antonia Tully of SPUC's Safe at School warns: "It is quite clear that an incoming Labour government would lose no time in making sex education compulsory" (my emphasis). In view of this political threat to our families, I trust that the Cardinal will lose no time in reviewing his position with a view to protecting the innocence and welfare of our children and grandchildren as well as the lives of unborn children.

John Smeaton

About Me

I became involved in SPUC after graduating, when I established a branch in south London in 1974. I have worked full-time for SPUC for 39 years. I became chief executive of SPUC in the UK in 1996, having been general secretary since 1978. I was elected vice-president of International Right to Life Federation in 2005. At UN conferences in Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing, Istanbul and Rome, I helped coordinate more than 150 pro-life/pro-family groups resulting in pro-life victories in Cairo, Istanbul and Rome. I was educated at Salesian College, London, before going to Oxford where I graduated in English Language and Literature. I qualified as a teacher, becoming head of English at a secondary school. I am married to Josephine. We have a grown-up family and we live in north London.

Acknowledgement

I am grateful to SPUC's staff, supporters and advisers for their help to me in researching, writing and producing this blog.

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